Nature in the Spotlight European Still Life 1600-1700 Nature in the Spotlight European Still Life 1600-1700 Nature in the Spotlight European Still Life 1600-1700 Valentina Rossi and Amanda Hilliam DE LUCA EDITORI D’ARTE Nature in the Spotlight European Still Life 1600-1700 Lampronti Gallery 4-11 July 2014 from 9.30 am to 6 pm Exhibition curated by Acknowledgements Valentina Rossi Mike Bascombe, the staff of Ciaccio Broker, Barbara De Nipoti, Amanda Hilliam Michele Ferrari, the staff of Itaca Transport, Giancarlo Sestieri, the staff Simon Jones Superfreight. Catalogue edited by Valentina Rossi This exibition is held during the London Art Week (4-11 July 2014) Essays and catalogue entries by Amanda Hilliam Valentina Rossi Photographer Mauro Coen LAMPRONTI GALLERY p. 2: Fig. 1. Gaspare Lopez, Still life with a of flowers and a silver platter, 44 Duke Street, St James’s oil on canvas, 36.3 x 23.5 cm London SW1Y 6DD Via di San Giacomo 22 p. 6: Fig. 2. Abraham Brueghel, Antonio Amorosi, Still life with fruits in a 00187 Roma landscape with a female figure and two boys, oil on canvas, 107 x 161 cm [email protected] pp. 8-9: Fig. 3 Maximilian Pfeiler, [email protected] Still life with flowers and fruits in a gar- www.cesarelampronti.com den against an architectural backdrop, oil on canvas, 127 x 177 cm Contents 7 Introduction CESARE LAMPRONTI 10 Milan, Rome, Toledo: the Archaic Season in Still-Life Painting VALENTINA ROSSI Panfilo Nuvolone [cat. 1] Agostino Verrocchi [cat. 2] Giovanni Stanchi and Niccolò Stanchi [cat. 3] Master of the Acquavella Still Life [cat. 4] Circle of Juan Sánchez Cotán [cat. 5] 22 From the Studio to the Garden: Still Life after Caravaggio AMANDA HILLIAM VALENTINA ROSSI Michele Pace, called michelangelo del Campidoglio and Bernhard Keil, called Monsu’ Bernardo [cat. 6] Abraham Brueghel and Jacob Ferdinand Voet [cat. 7] Michele Pace, called Michelangelo del Campidoglio [cat. 8] Franz Werner von Tamm, called Monsù Daprait [cat. 9] Jan Fyt [cat. 10] Pietro Navarra [cat. 11] 36 The Baroque Flower Piece and its Origins AMANDA HILLIAM Mario Nuzzi called Mario de’ Fiori [cat. 12] Carlo Dolci [cat. 13] Andrea Belvedere [cat. 14] Gaspare Lopez, called Gaspare dei Fiori [cat. 15] Master of the Guardiesque Flowers [cat. 16] 49 Nature in the Spotlight: European Still Life 1600-1700 (Testi Italiani) 62 Selected Bibliography t is with great pride that I open this catalogue of still-life paintings, which accompanies the exhibition, Na- ture in the Spotlight: European Still Life 1600-1700, held at our London gallery. As a collector of seventeenth Iand eighteenth-century paintings of the Italian school, the still life has always held a particular fascination for me. The range of sentiments that the representation of inanimate objects can express is one of the genre’s many unique qualities, which has, unfortunately, been lost to recent audiences. My hope is that the selection of paintings in this exhibition, represented and discussed in the present catalogue, will encourage today’s view- ers to appreciate the contemplative, exuberant, tragic, poignant, religious and romantic attributes that this type of painting can possess. Chosen for their ability to demonstrate these values, the group derives from a col- lection of still life that has been steadily accumulated over the years and now enjoys almost eighty examples from across the genre. As we enter the year 2015, it might be argued that the Baroque still life now holds little relevance in a world that favours the stark, cryptic imagery of contemporary art practice; in fact, the decorative still life of the seventeenth century can, in many ways, be seen as its polar opposite. However, my belief is that this se- icento imagery holds a universal appeal, as it pushes visual representation to the limits of the picture surface. Just as art-lovers in Rome applauded them at the time of their execution, I hope that audiences internation- ally will enjoy the fine examples of still-life painting in this exhibition. Cesare Lampronti 7 Milan, Rome, Toledo: the Archaic Season in Still-Life Painting The essential, meditative quality of the archaic still life, Salvoldo (c. 1480 – c. 1548) consolidated the taste for nat- a pictorial type that developed during the last decades of uralistic representation, it was the cultural contribution of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the next, has Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and his scientific investi- its roots in the iconic Basket of fruit or ‘Canestra di frutta’ gations that would stimulate the widespread secular en- by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) now quiry into the natural world. The legitimate heirs to this in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan. The value of this tradition are the visual experiments of Arcimboldi (1526- unique painting, which was fundamental to the develop- 1593), grotesque heads that incorporate the physiognom- ment of the still-life genre, is inextricably bound both to ic studies of Leonardo with an intense study of vegetable the context from which it came and the successive artis- and animal elements, which were of equal importance to tic responses to it. It was, in fact, the cultural develop- development of Caravaggio’s representations of nature. ments of the last quarter of the cinquecento and the first During the second half of the century another funda- years of the seicento that constructed the significance of mental episode prepared the ground for the birth of the this rarefied image, which as we will see, reveals an em- Canestra: the activity of Vincenzo Campi (1536-1591), pirical investigation of the work of Leonardo da Vinci and whose most important works, such as the pair of Poultry an absorption of the philosophical tone Fede Galizia. The and fruit sellers – a studio version of which is in the Lam- profound repercussions that the painting had on an en- pronti collection – demonstrate a reworking of the exam- tire generation of artists active in Rome determine the ples of Pieter Aertsen (1508 – c. 1575) and his nephew canestra’s art-historical importance: a series of influential Joachim Beuckelaer (1530-1575), which later incorporate painters in their own right, such as Pietro Paolo Bonzi still-life elements into religious compositions. The role of (1576-1636), Tommaso Salini (1575 – c. 1625) and Agosti- the two painters from Hamburg in the development of the no Verrocchi (1586-1659) based their careers upon Car- genre is of central importance and provides a vital link with avaggio’s conviction that “a good picture of flowers re- the painterly experiments that took place in Northern Italy quires just as much artistry as that of figures.”1 during those years: in Cremona, the activity of Campi, in The selection of paintings that make up the opening Venice that of Francesco Bassano (1549-1592) and his mar- section of this catalogue have been chosen as key exam- ket scenes laden with sacred and classical imagery, and in ples of the artistic responses to Caravaggio’s Canestra. Bologna the bloody butchers scenes of Bartolomeo From Lombardy to Rome and onto Toledo, the works Passerotti (1529 – 1592), which Merisi would have seen in demonstrate the still life’s feat of having surpassed the hi- the collection of Ciriaco Mattei whilst working under his erarchy imposed upon the painterly genres, bestowing it patronage. 2 with the dignity of an autonomous subject in its own right. In no way, however, does Caravaggio’s Canestra repli- The period from which the present paintings derive saw cate the tone of these light-hearted market scenes; rather, the growth of workshops and circles of artists dedicated his composition possesses a contemplative, sacred aura to the production of still life, such as the academy found- that would inform the first still-life painters active in ed by Giovan Battista Crescenzi (1577-1625) in Rome. Rome. Again, the precedents for this meditative type of The naturalism of Caravaggio’s Canestra and its inter- painting are to be found in Lombardy, in particular in the pretations can be traced to the artistic tradition of Lom- renowned Platter of peaches by Ambrogio Figino (1548- bardy, where, already by the mid cinquecento, painterly 1608), a prototype datable to c. 1591 that would serve as practices were founded upon empirical observation and a a model for the subsequent compositions of Fede Galizia realistic, anti-ideal approach. If history painters such as (1578-1630) and Panfilo Nuvolone (1581-1651). 3 In the Foppa (1456 ca. – 1490), Moretto (c. 1498 – 1554) and wake of xenia – the ancient Greek practice of offerings gifts 10 of food to guests and strangers – came the metal stands forward. The turn towards the Baroque that is evident in brimming with fruit depicted in the work of Galizia and the works of the Master of the Acquavella Still Life, which Nuvolone, whose frontal, small-scale compositions must are characterised by vibrant arrangements with an anec- have been intended for private contemplation. It is likely dotal tone, attest to the way in which the Accademia dei that cultural circle such as that of Cardinal Borromeo, who Crescenzi can be considered as a centre for cultural de- was one of the first collectors of still life, would have ex- velopment rather than a mere group of artist that had changed these works as gifts. gravitated towards an influential patron and amateur The Canestra and the artistic responses of the Accade- painter. The importance of Crescenzi’s role is further mia dei Crescenzi possess, therefore, a dual spirit. At once demonstrated by the artistic rapport he built with Spain, contemplative and empirical, these static compositions of- a key centre for the development of the still life as an au- fer a range of naturalia to the viewer upon rustic wooden tonomous genre.